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To ponder, while putting
posted by Mike Boone at 11h10 EST on Sep 1
• If not Sundin, ... ?
• Who was that masked man? Which Carey Price do we get this season? The cucumber-cool kid who gave the Canadiens rock-solid goaltending down the stretch and stoned the Bruins in Game 7? Or the jittery rook who was mediocre, to put it charitably, against the Flyers and made R.J. Umberger look like Mike F. Bossy?
• Will the sophomore jinx afflict SK74?
• Is AK 46 for real?
• How will Alex Tanguay react to the pressure of being the Canadiens' marquee Québécois player?
• How will the team react to the pressure of the centennial season?
• Which Alex Kovalev will show up for his contract year?
• How much does Saku Koivu have left in the tank?
• The low-expectations Canadiens topped the Eastern Conference. How will a high-expectations team fare?
• Can the the Canadiens make it through a second straight season with no serious injuries?
• Can Georges Laraque play eight to 10 minutes a game, allowing Carbo to roll four lines and thereby diminish the likelihood of serious injuries?
• Will they sweep regular-season games against Boston and Philadelphia?
• Will the loss of Mark Streit hurt the PP more than, less than or as much as the loss of Sheldon Souray did?
• Andrei Markov, Mike Komisarek and Roman Hamrlik are as good as any Top 3 defencemen in the East. But who's number 4 ... and don't we wish it were Bobby Orr?
• Can the Canadiens beat Western Conference teams?
• Will impending free agency distract Mike Komisarek, Christopher Higgins and Tomas Plekanec?
• Can Habs I/O live blogger Mike Boone make it through another full season without eating a single pressbox hot dog? Will he ever learn PhotoShop?
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• Can Habs I/O live blogger Mike Boone make it through another full season without eating a single pressbox hot dog?
The key word here is pressbox. We will have to ask Francois Gagnon to keep an eye on Boone, & get pictures if he sees Mike eating a pressbox hot dog.
The over / under is opening night, before the first Koivu slash!
Better over/under is when Koivu gets his first offensive zone penalty
Koivu does not slash, that's Kovalev you were thinking about.
Koivu might hook, not slash.
Come on Robert L. You should know this stuff. I'm dissapointed in you.
"Oh come all ye faithful"
Well fellow Habs fans, August has come and gone(August does have the same amount of days in Sweden doesn't it?), and no word from the one who shall go nameless. Shows what sort of relationship he enjoys with his agent, hanging him out to dry, with no less than 3 drop dead dates. And as yet no word...still, I hold out faint hope that we might still be the recipient of his selfdefensive style of play in front of the oppositions net.
Sitting here, I realize what a petty and meanspirited individual I am, 'cause all I can think of if the nameless one doesn't sign with our beloved Habs, is how much I would love to see BGL punch his face in for making such a mockery out of our sincere desire to see ____ win The Cup while wearing the B.B.R.
Go Habs Go
Lee, imagine being his fiancee, with all this indecision, he might just propose by the time he is 70 years old. And then it'll take another decade to finalize the catoring!
Now I understand why Pierre Page's eyes were bugging out his head in the '93 Habs - Nordiques series.
The coach was likely screaming, "for F sakes Mats, the friggin' time is now!"
Someone really has to lay it on the line for this bald headed former blond.
"Mats, you have some decent career NHL numbers, but you have won shit all. What have you to lose by going for broke here!"
Just for $#its and giggles:
Mats Sundin Sings About His Favorite Team's Uniform
WTF?!?!?!?!
That was weird but somehow funny.
"Oh come all ye faithful"
Finally, after about three re-writes...
1920-21 Aging Canadiens Fall Short
http://wwwrealitycheckeyesontheprize.blogspot.com/2008/09/1920-21-aging-...
Quite the nutty year in the 1920-21 NHL. Read all about the craziness of early NHL. Stars such as Newsy Lalonde, Sprague Cleghorn, and Harry Mummery are featured in a season where the aging Habs don't quite pull it together.
Fun stuff: Mummery's prefered pre-game meal, Newsy's least favorite bench drink, and the reason Sprague might have grown a big hate for the city of Ottawa. Enjoy!
Alright boone, and company, I am ready for the start of the season, just came back from a weekend in toronto, and got something I've wanted forever...Koivu sweater :D...Me and my family walked all over downtown toronto when I was wearing it, and only 2 people said something negative to me...Where's their hockey spirit?.... but in all fairness I guess if the habs were losers for the past 40 years, we wouldn't be as proud as we are...or maybe we would.
anyways, I haven't posted in a while...what's up with this SK74 to centre move???
I guess Carbo has no hope in Sundin coming to MTL? If he doesn't anyone think Gainey will try and get someone like Murray (anyother big strong forwards Available?) + sign a dman (I think there are quite a few solid ones out there..?)
I don't think losing Streit will hurt our PP much...if at all. When Souray left, Markov knew he had to step up, and work on getting his shot more accurate, he did that...even though streit was the main trigger man at the point....He will probably work on it even more now. Tanguay has a bullet, Kovy has a bullet, and AK46, and Pleks both have great shots as well. SK74 is also another good pointman.... Breezers isn't bad either (if we resign him). To me it seems that the habs have way too many weapons on the PP to suffer from the loss of streit.
Anyways 8 days till NHL '09 comes out :D...and about a month until the season comes out....it's going to be awesome :)
~Listen to the rooster! He knows what he's saying!
DueNorth1
As far as a 4th D goes, I think Gorges is your man. In behind his own net, he's hard to beat. A lot of grit and usually always comes out with the puck. If he does lose the puck in his zone, he works relentlessly to get it back. This guy's a winner. He also moves the puck well out of his zone. Makes a good first pass....(although his style is not the same, but the way he gets out of his zone quickly, reminds me a bit of Petr Svoboda)
As far as the lines go, I likes D'Agostini and possibly Stewart to make the team. Pacioretty is a long shot. D'agostini played with Sergei in Hamilton, and the 1 game he played last year with the Canadiens he clicked pretty good with SK. Higs, SK, D'Agos would be a firey 3rd line. Lots of grit with a ton of finesse. They should fill the net
LATS, Saku and Tanguay will also be productive. Be patient with Lats...he'll be productive with this combo. It'll be benefifial to Lats devellopment and beneficial to the habs Great playmaking with a bit of size.
AK27, AK46 and Plecs....nothing to add. AK46 has come out of his shell...playing with confidence. He'll make all the skeptics eat their words. Will be dominant.
Look for Halak to puch Pricey to greater heights
Plec - AK27 - AK46
Saku - Tanguay - Lats
SK74 - Higgins - D'Agostini / Stewart
Chipchura - Lapierre - Begin / Laraque
Spares: Pacioretti, Yanick Lehoux
Markov - Komi
Hamrlik - Gorges
Bouillon - Valentenko / O'Byrne
Spare: Belle
Price / Halak
way too optimistic...
remember when grabs and a.kost were benched for a million games at the start of last season??
d'ag,stewart and valentenko will find it hard to get into this lineup cause of carbo going with the vet presence to start a season strong.
DueNorth1
Not so far fetched...D'Agos & Stewart would basically be taking up the spots vacated by Ryder & Smolinski. Valentenko takes Brisebois' spot on the roster!
sorry for the repost. I just wanted everyone to see.
Just to clarify about people that want to see Higgins as a center. In my opinion, right now, Higgins is very over-rated. He had an amazing start to the year last year but only because he was playing with the brilliant play-maker Koivu and then then finisher Ryder. Higgins does not have the vision to play the center role. In my opinion he will develop into a fantastic power-forward however he has to work on his hitting and his crashing the net attributes first. Higgins needs to bulk up and remember that it is harder for a goalie to stop the puck if he can't see it. This year Higgins will have a much better year and improve drastically for the future if he is not asked to play a significant part in the teams offense. He will do a lot better and grow personally with the third line checking role with Lapierre.
Since the loss of Souray did not hurt the power play at all, and actually made it a little bit better because we weren't so one dimesional, I'd say the loss of Streit will "hurt" the power play as much as the loss of S.S. Which is not at all.
I think we should give gorges a chance as the fourth guy. We all saw what he could do during the back stretch of the season and in the playoffs, and i think he deserves a little bit of respect. The hammer is known for developping young talent, and i think we really do have it. Getting another d-man may slow down the development of our young blue line (even if its only a 1 year rental). I think our 1 and only priority for this last stretch before the season should be to acquire a center, whether it be sundin or not. We need to start winning faceoffs and have a guy down the middle. With a bit more than 6 mil on the table, lets go out and find a nice faceoff winner, with an extra offensive touch if possible. The last thing we need is a clogged defensive core while we struggle yet again to win faceoffs up front!
If the lineup stays the same as we have now which i wouldn't be surprised if it did. Personally I would love an experienced 4th d man but anyways.
With the current roster this will be the lineup:
1A: Tanguay-Koivu-Sergei
1B:AK46-Pleks-Kovy
3:Higgins-Lapierre-Lats
4: Begin-Chipper-BGL/Kosto
Bench: Stewart/D'Ag
Markov-Komo
Hammer-OB
Cube-Gorges
Bench:unknown possibly Briseboise. I believe we have not signed briseboise yet in the belief that we are targeting another d man
Mike - That lineup is very decent but for me Big George should get a decent shot on the third line.
Just to clarify about people that want to see higgins as a center. In my opinion, right now, higgins is very over-rated. He had an amazing start to the year last year but onl;y because he was playing with the brilliant play-maker koivu and then then finisher Ryder. Higgins does not have the vision to play the center role. In my opinion he will develop into a fantastic power-forward however he has to workj on his hitting and his crashing the net attributes first. Higgins needs to bulk up and remember that it is harder for a goalie to stop the puck if he can't see it. This year Higgins will have a much better year and improve drastically for the future if he is not asked to play a significant part in the teams offense. He will do a lot better and grow personally with the third line checking role with lapierre.
Nice lineup.
Higgins will not be happy on the third line in his contract year. I think Carbo will try Higgins with Koivu and Tanguay and turn to SK74 if it doesn't work out.
Mr. Boone - I believe that's the way Carbo will go for two reasons 1) to stick to his stubborn stand to have Higgy play with Saku 2) to make room for his boy Lats. As everybody was raving about Higgy being our next captain isn't what your saying going against the grain for being a team player or are you saying that Higgy is selfish like he is with the puck. Higgy's ice time on the third line will not diminish much by being on the third line which with his defencive awareness will be far more beneficial for the club as one of our previous captains was , Bob Gainey. I think i read in Eklund's column that their going to have Levitt's hot dogs also at the Bell Centers stand this year , lol.
I also feel that he will do that two. But I believe that this lineup is better.
I have a feeling that Gainey and Carbo would like more production and less time yapping with the media from Higgins.
Ex - I agree 100%.
Mike ,did you see my response to you in the previous blog and did you see either of those two games.
no sorry, what did you say?
Sorry bro ,should have said Mr Boone.
oh haha nice.
Switch Higgins and Koivu, and I'm there with you. It's time for Koivu to assume the statesman role of the solid two way player, like Modano and Yzerman did. Higgins by contrast has an offensive upside to develop and I think would benefit from being paired with fellow speedsters Tanguay and SK.
I also think Koivu brings out the best in Lats. Two years ago, Higgins was out with injury and Lats stepped up to take his spot on a line with Koivu and Ryder. Lats acquitted himself quite well.
Higgins has no potential as a center: he doesn't have any vision, like Koivu, Pleks and SK have.
No way.
Koivu is not that old, by the way.
Are the Koivu bashers out today or what!!!??